Teddy Roosevelt once said: “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” The new Student Government Association (SGA) candidates, who spoke at SGA’s speech night on Tuesday, Sept. 16 in Mary Lyon Hall, know this mantra all too well.

The Holman Room was filled with candidates, current SGA members, students, and Interim Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Kate McCaffrey.

Eleven candidates from the Class of 2018 ran for positions, including two for the class president position, three for the vice president position, two for the treasurer position and four for senate positions. The Class of 2017 also had four candidates running for vice president.

Colin Coco, vice president candidate for the Class of 2017, spoke with ardor when he said, “It’s the bee’s knees! […] I love it here and I want to make sure that everyone has a Wheaton experience like mine.”

There were many thoughtful speeches throughout the night, even from the incoming freshman class who, as of Sept. 16, have been on campus for less than four weeks.

“I am here to help and serve you,” said Daniela Pena ’18, senate candidate, with confidence. Similarly, senate candidate Graham Johnson ’18 reiterated the fact that he wants “Wheaton to be the happiest place that it can be.” His speech could be quaintly summarized and made into a bumper sticker: “Let’s Keep Wheaton Happy.”

Many candidates had active and progressive ideas pertaining to ways they could help improve the institution and campus life for the community. Vice presidential candidate Alex Gim-Fain ’17 had many on-campus initiative ideas for events, fairs, music festivals and games, such as an all-campus  game of Capture the Flag.

Senate candidate Bjorg Texel ’18 proposed the idea of having a “suggestion box” outside of the SGA room where students could give feedback and offer ideas to help the campus prosper.

This speech night was a particularly spirited one. When a current SGA member asked the Class of 2018 vice president candidates what they would sing to a sad schoolmate, Tenzin Tsering ’18 serenaded the whole room with an impressive cover of “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz.

The process of electing class representatives was quite concise. Campaigning ended at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 16, which is also the time that the Link opened up for voting, which lasted until 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18.